Reality is a story we tell ourselves

The more I walk the path, the more I realize that the reality I experience is 
happening inside my own heart and head and body. The reality I see is "through a 
glass," colored by the story I tell myself. That story is the only thing I 
control (and sometimes not even that!) :) 
So in my story, this world is beautiful and amazing and full of love and hope; 
there are flowers and kitties and hugs and happiness; there is also chronic 
pain, occasional fear, and some anxiety, to be honest. But in my story, this 
world is wonderful, and the world to come is even better. In my story, I have 
given up the need to control and understand everything, and chosen to trust in a 
deep structure, that the foundation of all is Love, and the meaning of 
everything is Love, and that written in every wandering atom and star is the 
story of Love. Beauty disappears but is replaced by beauty that disappears and 
is replaced and comes again, and that is the story I see in the face of a 
flower. May you always walk in Beauty, Beloveds. May you tell yourself a great 
story. 

Matthew 6. Philippians 4:8

Love and Peace ~Em Maxwell

Peace

On this 9/11 I praise the peace-builders. So much unresolved grief, anger and fear, on scales public and personal extends that cycle of grief, anger, and fear. Love is the answer, the reason. No other path leads out of the madness of the world. May seeds of peace be spread far and wide, be nurtured by hope and love. 

Literacy of choice and hope

From Upworthy, Ray Flores: When this teacher saw that her 5th-graders were suicidal, she changed her curriculum

You know, I wish I could share this video prominently and make sure everyone saw it. I, too, was 10 when existential despair set in. If only hope and choice-making were taught so clearly in every school. If these principles were taught in private and public schools, to kids of every class including the disappearing middle class and the rich, maybe the policy-makers, lawmakers, corporations and governments, bankers and lawyers and movie stars and sports figures, and even the media, would choose hope and helping over nihilism and selfishness.

How lucky we are to have teachers like these (and schools where teachers are allowed to make curriculum decisions!), and books, where there are no teachers, to provide life lessons! I just joined the local Friends of the Library board, and we had a presentation yesterday from Make Way For Books, an organization which is providing not only books to HeadStart and other Early Learning Centers, but to foster care kids and other families--books within the home, and programs that teach parents how to share books and reading with their kids. In Arizona, which is like 50th in child education. Our lawmakers use 4th grade reading scores to determine what prison space they will need in the future. This is what 30-40 years of canned curriculum and teaching to tests has brought us to.

But it's not only Arizona and schools of the South. It's high schools and colleges across the nation. How have we become a society where even people of goodwill and intelligence don't stand up and do the right thing? Don't make choices that put public welfare above profit? Don't feed the hungry?

As this wonderful teacher explains, unless we make the small choices in our daily lives, to do the right thing, to be kind to one another, to learn--to have hope!--then we can't make those other choices. We have to start where we are.